Abstract
As population, economic, and consumption pressures on natural resources
increase, educating consumers about their responsibilities becomes a
new and necessary expansion of Extension programming. Intelligent consumption
education must incorporate ethics-based methods to be successful. Since
1998, the Sustainable Living Project at OSU has been offering intelligent
consumption programming to typical American adults and older youth. By
taking a thoughtful approach to understanding cultural, economic, and
environmental ethics, considering the barriers to living sustainably,
examining national trends, and determining personal priorities, participants
create an ethical foundation for intelligent consumption decision-making.

Overview

"The American public for many years has been abusing the wasteful lumberman.
A public which lives in wooden houses should be careful about throwing stones
at lumbermen, even wasteful ones, until it has learned how its own arbitrary
demands help cause the waste which it de cries... The long and the short
of the matter is that forest conservation depends in part on intelligent
consumption, as well as intelligent production of lumber."

Aldo Leopold was right. At Oregon State University and other land-grant
institutions, we focus our educational efforts on teaching students to
professionally manage natural resources. However, as population, economic,
and consumption pressures increase, addressing the responsibilities of
the consumers of natural resources becomes a viable educational
tool.

Since 1998, the Sustainable Living Project at OSU has been offering
intelligent consumption programming to adults and older youth to create
an ethical foundation supporting sustainable management of natural resources.
Intelligent consumption is about managing ourselves. It acknowledges
the role ethics plays in decision-making. Taking a thoughtful approach
to understanding cultural, economic, and environmental values; considering
the barriers to living sustainably; examining national trends; and determining
personal priorities are all necessary elements in educating the public
about their consumer choices.

In this article, I:

Use forest resources data as an example of natural resource pressures
and forestry's response to them;

Propose that educating consumers about their responsibilities is
a new and necessary component of our educational efforts in natural
resources;

Suggest that intelligent consumption is a viable education topic
for all Extension professionals, not just those in natural resources;

Describe The Sustainable Living Project, which helps students determine
their own economic, cultural, and environmental values and beliefs;
and

Explain why the time is right for Extension to incorporate such
programming.

Pressures

In May 2001, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters and
the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory released the Report
of the Intelligent Consumption Project (Strigel & Meine, 2001).
The report identified three massive pressures squeezing global forest
resources: population, economic growth, and consumption.

First, world population is currently at 6 billion and is projected to
rise to 11 billion within 100 years. If projected increases in human
population hold true, by the end of this century, the area of forest
per capita in the world will drop from the currently inadequate 1.5 acres
to between 0.7 and 0.8 acres (Strigel & Meine, 2001). In the United
States, it will be more than halved, from 2.7 acres to about 1.3 acres
(Strigel & Meine, 2001).

Second, the World Bank predicts that economic growth in the next 10
years could approach 5% annually in developing countries and 2.8% in
industrial countries. The combination of population growth and economic
growth will create a worldwide demand for new housing units. Over the
next 50 years, that demand is likely to exceed one billion (Strigel & Meine,
2001).

The third pressure on forest resources is consumption, with the United
States consuming a disproportionate share. U.S. citizens use twice the
average for other developed countries and roughly three times that of
the world as a whole (Strigel & Meine, 2001). U.S. consumption is
higher than that of any other nation on Earth (Strigel & Meine, 2001),
leading two researchers to state, "It would require 4 of our Earths
for everybody on the planet to live the lifestyle of North Americans" (quoted
in Ryan & Durning, 1997).

These pressures are not unique to forestry. Similar pressures affect
all Extension program areas. And our responses and solutions are also
similar.

Solutions

Forestry's traditional--and crucial--response to the population, economic,
and consumption pressures has been to become more efficient. Our educational
programs focus on improving silviculture, harvest, utilization, production,
management, and delivery methods. But what about the consumers of
forest resources? Don't they have responsibilities too? What kind of
educational programming can help them make more informed consumer decisions?

Two caveats. First, one could assume that to ease pressures on forest
resources, one should encourage people to reduce consumption of wood
products. This assumption is misleading. The Report of the Intelligent
Consumption Project strongly cautions, "Contrary to expectations,
the result could be highly adverse to the environment in the U.S. and
globally. Reduction of wood consumption, without accompanying success
in reducing consumption in general, would likely lead to a number
of undesirable consequences..." (Strigel & Meine, 2001).

The report cites four negative outcomes:

Substitute materials can be less environmentally benign;

There would be a resultant increase in metallic and non-metallic
mineral extraction globally - with associated social and environmental
impacts;

Energy usage would increase significantly, including use of fossil
fuels to transport materials; and

There would be a considerable increase in U.S. net imports, thereby
transferring environmental impacts to other countries.

The second caveat is: to make intelligent consumer decisions, consumers
must be cognizant of "the right thing to do," a highly individualistic
determination generally arrived at after much thought. In Lawrence Kohlberg's
body of work on stages of moral development, intelligent consumption
decisions match Stage 6, the highest level: "Follow individual conscience
and universal principles even if risk is involved" (Kohlberg, 1984).

Ethics-Based Education

Ethics-based education is all about managing ourselves. It creates a
philosophical foundation to support decision-making on all levels. It
acknowledges that personal values, ethics, and beliefs powerfully influence
decisions and actions. (The take-home message for natural resource managers
is "To understand environmental facts you have to understand your
own values and the values of others" [Smith & Gilden, 2000]).

Self-aware people consciously align--and articulate--personal, professional,
and constitutional values (Figure 1.) These values are intertwined, underpinning
everything an individual does. They tell the world who she or he is and
how she or he goes about his or her business (Simon-Brown, 1999).

Figure 1.Personal, Professional, and Constitutional Values Triangle

An ethics-based curriculum helps students determine personal values,
ethics and facts. These are defined by Smith and Gilden (2000) as follows.

Values: What people think is right and wrong, good and bad, desirable
and undesirable. They are the lens through which reality is perceived.

Ethics: A specific combination of values, creating a body of moral
principles.

Facts: Truths which are verifiable and socially agreed upon. Facts
can change, based on new knowledge. In the 11th century, the earth
was flat, a verifiable and socially agreed upon fact.

An example of an Extension program that evolved into an ethics-based
education program is the Sustainable Living Project at OSU.

The Sustainable Living Project at OSU

False Start: Focus on Information Transfer

In 1998, the Sustainable Living Project quietly began at Oregon State
University. The project's mission, to reduce environmental degradation
and improve quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by fostering new
consumption patterns and promoting sustainable lifestyles, targeted mainstream
adults and older youth. The project defines sustainable living as "A
life that is deeply satisfying, fulfilling and appealing, and at the
same time, environmentally responsible" (Simon-Brown, 1998).

Original efforts focused on a "one-stop shopping" approach.
I provided research-based information on a variety of traditional Extension
topics, such as energy conservation and usage, financial management,
consumer products, healthy foods, and gardening. It didn't work. Traditional
Extension audiences considered the service to be redundant; new audiences
didn't engage. The decision point came when a mall shopper stopped at
my booth during a Home Show. "Why should I care about this stuff?
What's in it for me?" Clearly, I was offering answers to questions
that my audience hadn't yet asked themselves.

At about the same time, I read Yearning for Balance: Views of Americans
on Consumption, Materialism, and the Environment (The Harwood Group
for Merck Family Fund 1995). The report enumerates four key findings:

Americans believe our priorities are out of whack.

Americans are alarmed about the future.

Americans are ambivalent about what to do.

Americans see the environment as connected to these concerns--in
general terms.

These non-scientific-sounding findings reflect a society at odds with
its values. To move Americans from ambivalence to action, the Sustainable
Living Project needed to help people think through their personal values
and beliefs.

New Focus: Identify Individual Values and Beliefs

Our approach to the project mission changed to: help mainstream adults
and older youth make informed consumer decisions by thoughtfully and
consciously examining the cultural, economic and environmental aspects
of our American lifestyle. In short, participants identify their own
Sustainability Triangle of Values.

Figure 2.Sustainability Triangle of Values

Now, the Sustainable Living workshops:

Create a safe intellectual environment for thoughtful dialogue about
quality of life issues. This is the foremost requirement.

Focus on exploring individual values and beliefs in order to make
more-informed decisions.

Address the major barriers to achieving quality of life in the United
States: time crunch, natural/spiritual disconnect, and consumption/materialism.

Act as conduits to other programs, such as Earth Ministry in churches,
voluntary simplicity classes and simplicity circles for individuals,
and EcoTeams for neighborhood groups.

Neutrality is the most essential quality for the instructor to exhibit Œ and
its importance can't be overstated. Each participant arrives with a lifetime
of values and beliefs. It is not the instructor's role to change them
or to advocate certain philosophies. It is up to the participants to
discover what they believe to be their most important cultural, economic
and environmental values. The instructor facilitates that process by
using time-honored Extension techniques: asking questions, role-playing,
large and small group conversations, readings, and individual journaling.

Since refocusing the project in 1999, more than 5,000 people have participated
in workshops and presentations, and over 150,000 people have browsed
the Web site <http://www.cof.orst.edu/cof/extended/sustain/>.
An overdue formal evaluation and assessment of the project is scheduled
for this year.

In 2002, I informally called 25 participants from the 2000 and 2001
workshops to ask 1) if their Sustainability Triangle was displayed and
2) if they used the Sustainability Triangle in decision-making. Twenty-three
(92%) said that their Sustainability Triangle was prominently displayed
(usually on the refrigerator) and that they consulted it often. Twenty-one
(84%) said they had used it in making major family decisions (buying
or selling a vehicle or house.) Several ex-participants volunteered that,
as a result of the workshops, their families had reduced energy consumption,
changed eating and spending habits, and reduced the number of arguments
with their teenagers!

Why the Time Is Right: Implications for Extension

Global, national, and regional trends underscore the timeliness of such
an ethics-based education effort. According to the World Future Society
(Outlook 99, 1998), the following trends affect sustainability of natural
resources.

The likelihood of an energy-related economic/environmental crisis
is increasing. The Middle East conflicts and the recent crash of
the Asian economy are two examples. A gasoline crisis is predicted.

Sustainability is becoming a central concept in environmental management,
ecology, business, and industry.

People are increasingly aware of the linkages between personal behavior
and environmental health, and industrial behavior and global health.

America is in the midst of a meta-transition. Time and quality of life
are becoming relatively more important than money. Sixty-six percent
of Americans say they want more balance in their lives. Sixty percent
want to simplify their lives (Schor, 1998). The voluntary simplicity
movement, which approximately 35 to 40 million Americans espouse, is
moving from the early adopter phase to the early majority phase.

Figure 3.Meta-Transitional Categories

(One sure proof that the concept has become mainstream is the proliferation
of commercials by car, banking, and soft drink companies exhorting consumers
to simplify their lives--by buying their products.)

Intelligent consumption is applicable to more than just natural resources
Extension program areas such as Forestry, Agriculture and Sea Grant.
A quick brainstorm list of programs that could be augmented and enhanced
include:

4-H youth leadership

Diet and nutrition materials

Family financial management

Emergency preparedness

Welfare reform

Community revitalization

Holiday planning

Family business management

Housing and energy

Each topic includes aspects of intelligent consumption. Each involves
cultural, economic, and environmental values. Incorporating and highlighting
the ethical components could be the "grabber" that fully engages
the clientele.

Conclusion

Oregon State University--like other land-grant institutions--has a long
tradition of educating people to manage natural resources. The Sustainable
Living Project focuses on education to manage ourselves, by asking ethics-based
questions about intelligent consumption and quality of life. Extension
professionals may find it creates an ethical bridge between consumers
of natural resources and the sustainable management of natural resources.

References

1998-99world resources: A guide to the global environment.
(1998). A Report by World Resources Institute, UNEP, UNDP, and The World
Bank. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Flader, S. L., & Caldecott, J. B. (Eds.) (1991). River of the mother of God and other essays by Aldo Leopold. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Kohlberg, L. (1984). The philosophy of moral development: Moral stages
and the idea of justice. HarperCollins.